Reflections On 40 Years of Drug Abuse Prevention Research

Summary

---

Over the past twenty-five years, tremendous progress has been made in the area of drug abuse prevention research. The accumulated findings from longitudinal studies of adolescents regarding the factors associated with vulnerability to the substance use and abuse and trends from national surveys of substance use showing their association to societal perceptions of the harmfulness resulting from the use of these substances have informed the development of effective innovative prevention strategies. The 1990s saw a reversal in the perception of the value and importance of drug abuse prevention research with recognition of the fieldís approach to intervention development and implementation and its scientific rigor in demonstrating intervention impact. This paper reflects on this history anticipating both the positive and negative aspects of the future for the field.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Reflections On 40 Years of Drug Abuse Prevention Research

REFLECTIONS OF 40 YEARS

Prior to 1974, the year the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) was established, drug abuse prevention researchers struggled to develop effective interventions without sufficient guidance or knowledge of how drug-using behaviors began or how these behaviors progressed. Most available information came from cross-sectional studies that compared characteristics of users versus non-users or case studies of drug abusers. However, with the creation of NIDA came plans for an array of epidemiologic databases, including longitudinal studies that followed cohorts of adolescents over time to examine the risk factors that lead to substance use and abuse. Although this information proved helpful, prior failure to demonstrate the effectiveness of prevention programming resulted in a moratorium on prevention research funding that lasted for several years. Thus, the prevention research program of today is relatively young.

In this short history of about 25 years, several specific achievements in the field of substance abuse prevention have moved it from an art to a science. Among these achievements is the extensive epidemiologic research base that provided consistent findings relative to the origins and pathways of substance use, the adaptation of theories of behavior change to address drug use, and the development of both research and statistical methodologies.

EPIDEMIOLOGY

Information from the national epidemiologic surveys, the Monitoring the Future Study and the National Ho...

See the full content of this document

---